Edinburgh International Festival REVIEW – King Creosote, From Scotland with Love ****

Review byKeira Brown. Image – Ross Trevail.

A familiar face in Edinburgh and renowned for his long-standing career in Fife’s music scene, King Creosote, also known as Kenny Anderson, plays for the first time under the Edinburgh International Festival banner, receiving touched and moving kudos from his dedicated crowd.

Indulging his audience with a Virginia Heath’s wonderfully nostalgic documentary, From Scotland with Love, and a live scoring in the lyrically poetic yet folk style that is core to this musician, there is much to satisfy the senses. I certainly let my eyes flit from the stage to the screen and back down to the strings, which by no means removed anything from the experience. Illuminating lights hit the performers, rendering it near impossible to loyally keep the eyes glued to the rich montage of archive footage.  This live performance with full band, strings, backing vocals only meant that a fuller, richer outcome was grasped. Having seen this performance on a few occasions, to tire of it would be anticipated. However, with each the experience actually becomes more enhanced. The visuals that I met with this time were also poles apart to my previous viewings, highlighting the plethora of visual text that can be inhaled to taint any viewer’s derived meaning. Heath creates a wonderful space to allow the multitude to engage with this documentary in an endless number of ways, and the format of the performance, and magical performance only but adds to this.

Kenny Anderson jests that playing in Edinburgh as part of the fresh Hub Sessions at Edinburgh International Festival compares to their more recent festival gigs (such as Glastonbury and Latitude) : “Oh, the muddy boots, the long queues for drink and the stinking lavvies – and Glastonbury’s no’ much better! “ But on a more serious note, Anderson has categorically, along with his backing vocalists and wonderful team of musicians, perfected this tour: “We’ve played the 6th FSWL show last night on the Kelvingrove Park bandstand, hopefully we ironed out a few more wrinkles ahead of next week.” Well, if there were wrinkles in Glasgow then it is obvious that they picked up some fabric softener on the way east. With barely a dry eye in the house and a standing ovation, the resounding heartfelt but passionate feeling was blatant amidst his attendees, as the end credits rolled.

Sandwiched between a couple that have both a home in London and Edinburgh as well as a spiritual healer and clairvoyant there truly was a diverse, sundry crowd at this gig. Many were obviously here that were not as acquainted with Anderson’s countless records as is the case with the majority of his performances, with Edinburgh boosting his exposure internationally but there was one common thread that evening:  the room was flooded with an amalgamation of poignant tears, many touched and moved by the flawless, transcendent Hub Session.